Bulgaria reports increase in consumer confidence
Consumers in Bulgaria were less pessimistic in April 2015 than they had been in January, according to the results of a survey released by the National Statistical Institute (NSI) on May 11.
There was a less negative view about the overall economic situation in the country and about the financial situation of households, but slightly gloomier views about the change in consumer prices in the past 12 months. At the same time, expectations about inflation had eased, as had those about unemployment, the NSI said.
In April 2015 the total consumer confidence indicator increased by 2.6 percentage points in comparison with January, the institute said. Among the urban population, the increase was 1.8 percentage points but among the rural population, it dropped -3.9 percentage points.
The NSI said that consumers’ opinions about the development of the general economic situation in the country over the past 12 months and their expectations about the next 12 months were “less pessimistic” compared to the previous survey, as a result of which the balance indicators increased, respectively, by 5.4 and 3.8 percentage points.
Compared to January expectations about changes in the financial situation of their households also were less negative.
But views about the change of consumer prices over the past 12 months were more unfavourable in comparison with the opinions registered three months earlier, producing an increase of two percentage points.
Inflation expectations over the next 12 months were “less intense,” the NSI said.
Consumers were more moderate in their expectations about what would happen to unemployment in the next 12 months.
In April, most consumers saw the economic situation in the country as unfavourable for savings, although the proportion who took this view had decreased, the survey found.
At the same time, the survey found more optimism among consumers about the possibility of spending on home improvements in the next 12 months, the NSI said.
(Photo: Clive Leviev-Sawyer)
